J Bible Recept 2017; 4(1): 147–169 Hannah Strømmen* Christian Terror in Europe? The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto DOI 10.1515/jbr-2017-2006 Abstract: In the attempts to understand the ideology underpinning the terror attack in Norway 22nd July 2011, and the growth of far-right extremism in Europe more generally, Christianity and the uses of the Bible are a largely neglected feature. In this article, I examine the way in which the Bible is used in Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto, arguing that this provides an important example of the role of Christianity in far-right discourse. I show that the Bible functions as a legitimating device, glossing violence as defense of a Christian Europe; as a motivational instrument, positing God as a fellow fighter; and, as an origin for Europe. The Bible is situated in a pre-modern state where its signifying powers are policed. At the same time, it is wrenched out of this solidified framework, cut up and pasted into the manifesto hypertext in order to serve as a contemporary ally to an anti-Muslim and anti-multicultural cause. Keywords: Terror; Bible; Christianity; far right; Breivik; Europe. 1 Introduction On 22nd July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik dressed in a fake police uniform, drove to the Government Headquarters (the government office buildings), in Oslo (Regjeringskvartalet) and planted a bomb, which detonated shortly thereafter. He then gained entry to the island of Utøya, where the Norwegian Labour party’s youth organization [Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking (AUF)] held their annual political summer camp, and shot indiscriminately at the young people there. Altogether, Breivik killed 77 people – of whom the majority were below the age of 20 – and wounded many more. Amidst the fallout from the event, the wide- spread assumption voiced by the media and broadcast worldwide over the inter- net, radio and television, was that the perpetrator of these attacks was a Muslim terrorist, and, it was implied, not an ethnic Norwegian. The general consensus of *Corresponding author: Hannah Strømmen, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies, University of Chichester, Chichester, UK, e-mail: [email protected] 148 Hannah Strømmen opinion was that very few would have expected the terrorist1 to be a Caucasian Norwegian, born and raised in the affluent west end area of Oslo – as he was later revealed to be.2 Furthermore, it was highly unexpected when it transpired that the terrorist associated his violent acts with Christianity, using biblical texts to encourage and try to justify “warfare” against Muslims and multiculturalism. Despite Mieke Bal’s rather hyperbolic warning that the Bible is the most danger- ous of books, “endowed with the power to kill,”3 the very idea of “Christian,” “biblically” inspired terrorism in Europe was seemingly so unthinkable that it has not been given any serious attention: indeed, once it became clear that the perpetrator was not Muslim, attention to his religious affiliation has vanished from view. In the aftermath of 22 July 2011, we are left with the manifesto Breivik com- posed, and distributed electronically shortly before his acts of violence, where he outlines the grounds and reasoning behind his terrorism – a terrorism he called “horrible” but “necessary,” to acquire a platform for his “political project.”4 In this article, I will examine the biblical references that appear in Breivik’s mani- festo. I will argue that even though it is not a central feature of his manifesto, the Bible performs an important peripheral function to the central claims in the text. The Bible functions as a legitimating device for terror, glossing violence as defense of a Christian God and a Christian Europe; as a motivational instrument, 1 In calling Breivik a terrorist, I am drawing on Bruce Hoffman’s definition of terrorism as the use of violence and the pursuit of power for political ends. For Hoffman, terrorism is ineluctably political in its aims and motives, involves violence or the threat of violence, is intended to invoke long-term psychological effects beyond the particular victims, and is perpetrated “by individuals or a small collection of individuals directly influenced, motivated, or inspired by the ideological aims or example of some existent terrorist movement and/or its leaders. Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (London: Victor Golliancz, 1998), 14–5; 40. 2 Sindre Bangstad conveys the way in which the Norwegian security forces, PST (Politiets Sik- kerhetstjeneste), predicted that “extreme Islamists” were the main terror threat to Norway in both 2010 and 2011. It was perhaps not surprising that both national and international media featured extensive speculations by terrorism experts as to the identity and motivations of the perpetrator(s), assuming them to be members of al-Qaida or affiliated radical Islamist groups. Bangstad suggests that in the years prior to July 22, 2011, PST intelligence-gathering focused exclusively on sources within these radical Islamist circles – a judgement corroborated by the 22/7 Commission Report. Sindre Bangstad, Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia (London: Zed Books, 2014), 2, 14–5; NOU (Norges Offentlige Utredninger), “Rapport fra 22. .juli-kommis- jonen” [22/7 Commission Report], (Oslo: Departementenes Servicesenter Informasjonsforvalt- ning, 2012). 3 Mieke Bal, Anti-Covenant: Counter-Reading Women’s Lives in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Almond, 1989), 14. 4 Geir Lippestad Det Kan Vi Stå For (Oslo: Aschehaug, 2014), 45, 47, 102. The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto 149 positing God as a fellow fighter; and, finally, as a point of origin for a Christian, mono-cultural Europe. Ultimately, the Bible is a split site in Breivik’s manifesto: on the one hand, it is situated sanctimoniously in a pre-modern state where its signifying powers are stabilized through the policing of interpretive activity; on the other hand, it is wrenched out of this solidified framework, cut up like a collage and pasted into the manifesto hypertext in order to serve as a contempo- rary ally to an anti-Muslim and anti-multicultural cause. 2 The Manifesto The manifesto – entitled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence” – is a 1500-page text, which aims to reveal the “truth” about the state of Western Europe today.5 Essentially, it is argued that an “Islamic Imperialism” is taking hold in Western Europe and that this is supported by a “totalitarian” political correctness embedded in the dominant forces in European politics, higher education, and media. The manifesto is compiled in the name of a “Western European Resist- ance,” for all “European patriots,” and “cultural conservatives,”6 to “prevent the annihilation of our identities, our cultures and traditions and our nation states”7 and to “win the ongoing Western European cultural war.”8 Western culture is seen as radically threatened by modern and postmodern attacks on “the bases of Western culture, including Christianity, capitalism, authority, the family, patriarchy, hierarchy, morality, tradition, sexual restraint, loyalty, patriotism, 5 It would take up far too much space to give an in-depth exposition on the manifesto’s multiple claims and intricacies here. It contains everything from potted histories of Marxism; biographi- cal information about key figures from the Frankfurt School; statistics on the “Islamification” of Europe; information on Pan-European movements and Jihad; critiques of feminism, to detailed instructions for bomb-making, a question and answer session on Breivik, and photos of him clad in various outfits. In my brief synopsis, I recount the key ideological points that run through the manifesto, without assessing the multiple strands of argumentation in the document. When I cite the manifesto I refer to the version that can be found online: Andrew Berwick, “2083: A Euro- pean Declaration of Independence,” available as a pdf at https://publicintelligence.net/anders- behring-breiviks-complete-manifesto-2083-a-european-declaration-of-independence/. Accessed 05/05/17. The page numbers correspond to those found on the PDF. Anders Breivik adopts an Anglicized spelling of his name: Andrew Berwick, for the manifesto. In this article, when refer- encing the manifesto (hereafter referred to as simply “Manifesto”), Breivik’s real name, rather than pseudonym, shall be used. 6 Breivik, Manifesto, 13. 7 Breivik, Manifesto. 8 Breivik, Manifesto, 12. 150 Hannah Strømmen nationalism, heredity, ethnocentrism, convention and conservatism.”9 This has supposedly led to a “loss of freedom of expression, thought control, inversion of the traditional social order.”10 Multiculturalism is presented as profoundly anti-Christian,11 leading to “the ongoing Islamic colonisation of Europe through demographic warfare (facilitated by our own leaders).”12 The ultimate aim out- lined in the manifesto is to curtail the spread of Islam, along with “the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist hegemony in Western Europe.” The hope is that “Europe will once again be governed by patriots”13 in “a monocultural Christian Europe.”14 Since 2011, attempts have been made to contextualize Breivik within the far- right networks that disseminate and promote Islamophobic views in Norway, and more broadly in Europe, highlighting the “mainstreaming” of such ideas.15 As many have stated, Breivik’s manifesto is a patchwork composition, made up of a cut-and-paste excerpts from a variety of sources, from extremist far-right books, to websites and blogs. The manifesto thus draws attention to the wider ideological circuits that foster hatred against Muslims and condemn multicul- turalism. Two central and often overlapping features of the far-right that Breivik draws on are the Eurabia theory and contra-jihadism. Briefly put, the Eurabia theory consists of the view that political leaders in Europe, and especially the European Union, are part of a conspiracy to turn Europe into an Islamic colony;16 its central proponents, such as Oriana Fallaci, Bat Ye’or and, Breivik’s favorite, 9 Breivik, Manifesto, 23. 10 Breivik, Manifesto, 24.